Cars today are generally not designed based on the way they are actually used. In this regard, the typical American commuter car is a sedan designed to comfortably seat 4-5 people with a range of about 350 miles or more on a single tank of fuel. That said, these attributes generally do not reflect the daily use of the average commuter vehicle.
According to research done by the United States Department of Transportation in 2008, there are an estimated 900,000,000 car trips made in America each day. Of these daily car trips, about 80% are 10 miles or less, round-trip, and about 50% are made by a single occupant and are less than five miles, round trip. Of commuter trips, about 77% of American commuters drive alone and about 78% of such commuters travel less than 50 miles round trip. Accordingly, the average commuter vehicle uses a relatively large amount of its power to move the weight associated with a car that is capable of carrying 4-5 people, when only one person is in the car. Thus, it will be appreciated that there is a need for a personal mobility vehicle that is designed for the typical daily use of automobiles.
Based upon the foregoing, it would be logical to design cars at the scale of the individual. However, many attempts to develop and market small scale vehicles have been relatively unsuccessful. Two major barriers for these vehicles have been safety and cost. For small vehicles especially, perceived safety is a very influential factor in an initial purchase. Indeed, in many cases, there is an innate feeling of vulnerability in a small vehicle, and all too often this feeling has failed to be dispelled by many of the previous solutions that have been attempted. However, Formula One and other racing franchises have shown that individual safety in a small, light-weight vehicle is very achievable—even without the benefit of active safety mechanisms, like airbags.
Cost is also an inhibiting factor for producing vehicles intended for an individual commuter. Modern manufacturing processes are such that the more units produced, the greater the reduction in the cost of each individual unit. For example, it generally costs less per car to make 10,000 cars than it would to manufacture one. This principle, that it is more economical to produce things on a larger scale, is known as economy of scale. For most of the individual commuter market, economy of scale is never reached. Accordingly, the higher costs that are generally associated with the production of a relatively small number of individual commuter cars make it so that many of these cars do not compare well with other larger cars of a similar price point. Thus, the popularity of many of these individual commuter cars is limited in the market.
In light of the foregoing, it will be appreciated that there is a need in the art for a personal mobility vehicle which is efficient, safe, and affordable.